Fall Bucket List 2016

As a mom of three I am always looking for ways to have fun, to spend time as a family and NOT spend a small fortune in doing so. 

With our girls growing up faster than I like I thought this fall season I would try something a little different to accomplish those three factors. 

As you all may know I am sorta in love with two things... Fall and Pinterest. 

While wasting time browsing on pinterest recently I have seen TONS of seasonal bucket lists and I got to thinking...

So this morning I decided fuck it and threw together our first ever Fall Bucket list!

I kept the list to about 20 activities and tried to make sure theta they were all something everyone would enjoy and if not everyone the majority of us with as little bitching and complaining as possible... which in this house with teens is a task...

So with out further ado here is our 2016 Fall Bucket List! 

I will be sure to document and keep you all posted about this :) I am kinda hoping it goes over well and we can do one for each season. 

Are you a bucket list kinda person? 

 

5 Reasons Why I am Looking Forward to Fall

I know summer still technically has 37 more days to reign but I can honestly say that one we hit the first day of school fall seems to come so quick! 

Though I do LOVE the summer months fall is by far the most favorite season for me and October is my favorite month which is just 45 days away! 

Fall to me is a fun jam packed season for many reasons like:

1: Pumpkin Flavored EVERYTHING! 

All of us girls love our pumpkin flavored items! From coffees to cakes, cheesecakes to beer and most everything in between. 

2: Amazing Outfits! 

For the Man in your life

LIttle girls

For the Tween

For the Teen

For Me :)

 I LOVE using Pinterest to find outfit inspirations. I usually try and find an adorable outfit and make my own version finding the pieces cheaper and within our budget. To me this is a great way to still be "hip" without breaking the bank! 

3: Hoodies

 Whatever your style or preference is a hoodie is a staple in the family. We all have our favorite designs, colors, what we find comfy etc but you can be sure we own at least one. My oldest and I are so attached to them that you might even see us wearing them year round :) 

4: Festivals, Fairs and Community Events

This area is HOPPIN' with events and festivals this time of year and the fair is also in town! 

One of our favorites and one that we go to annually is Spook City. 

This year it is on October 22 and I have already got it in my planner to attend. 

The girls have amazing things happening at school in the fall too and there is usually something going on if not right here in our town then the near towns have it going on an we try to take a short day trip to enjoy the festivities and our little family! 

5: Holidays

 The fall months host some of our favorite holidays! 

The girls and I really like Halloween and all the festivities from carving pumpkins to trick or treating and more! 

 Then there is the hubby who enjoys thanksgiving...but then again who doesn't love to eat?!

 Each of these holidays holds a tradition or two for us and we do look forward to them each year!

 What is your favorite season? 

XOXO

SJ

Tasty Tuesday: Rice & Sausage

With our fall weather in full swing it's time to heat up the kitchen with some hot meals!
God knows I am not a HUGE fan of standing in front of a gas stove in the dead heat of the summer BUT during the winter I am game!
 Last night I made another family favorite of Red Beans & Rice with sausage and Yellow rice with sausage.
NO this is NOT a made from scratch recipe but I'll be honest I am too in LOVE with this I wouldn't dare trying to screw it up!
I personally use Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice boxes and Mahatma Yellow Rice Pouches.
Here in Arkansas and in Alabama they both can be found at any grocery store.
NOW as for the sausage... I ONLY use Conecuh brand... and the spicier of the two flavors. Downfall here in Arkansas I can only find it at Kroger's verses when we were in Alabama it was also very easy to find.

 

 To get started I follow the back of the rice packages and measure out my water. I personally use about 1/4 to 1/2 cup less water than the Zaterain's calls for inorder to make it thicker.

I then cut the sausage into bite sized pieces.

I typically use one package of sausage when I make it for our family but I use 2 of each of my rice choices. You can add as little or as much sausage as you would like.

The rest is as easy as pie as you just follow the directions on the back. I usually have this meal thrown together in less than a half hour and it's always a huge hit. 

I also usually serve a roll of some sort or cornbread with it.

My personal favorite are the Hawaiian sweet rolls.

Though I am not HUGE on " SOUTHERN " foods I will have to say this is by far my favorite. 

 Have you tried this Southern classic?

Friday Favs!

I thought I would kick off the weekend with sharing you some of my favs!

These are COMPLETELY random and just off the top of my head so bare with me...

Pumpkin Flavor:

Fall is by far my favorite season of the year and ever since we have moved to Arkansas I am in love with it SO MUCH more!

Growing up in Southern California then moving to the DEEP Dirty South of Alabama you got TWO seasons... Summer and Winter!

Now along with fall comes pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING!

YAY!

From pumpkin pie, to muffins, from cold coffee to hot and you can't forget the BEER! My fall loving butt is ALL over it!

Luckily my girls inherited the love of pumpkin too... only down fall? Well now I HAVE to share...boo! and Aaliyah is allergic to nutmeg! UGH!

The Color Black:

I have always been a little obsessed with the color black. I honestly can't remember a time when black was not listed as a favorite. 

From clothes, shoes, nails, eye shadow and everything in between I can't go wrong with black... WELL except for hair... 

I can't pull that one off... I am WAY to WHITE!

Photography:

If you know me personally then you know since I first set eyes on my Grandpa's 35mm SLR camera I WAS HOOKED! Then when I had my first kid, Dakota, my mind was made up I would become a photographer. 

I was all self taught until I enrolled in school when we moved her to Arkansas. I am starting my own photography business, What the Photography (more on that later),  and EVENTUALLY the plan is to have my Master's Degree in the Art.

Ink aka Tattoos:

Again this was another obsession I have had since I know I was a teenager. My mom used to YELL at me all the time for drawing "tattoos" on me as a kid, plus I am PRETTY sure it didn't help when my ink skills found it's way to my shoes and jeans... oops...

I got my first tattoo at the age of 16 and now that I am 31 I am close to or right at 15 maybe even over. I lost count lol 

There are more that I will add but I can't tell you ALL of it now! That is for another post later so stay tuned!

P.S.: Ant is also inked up and all I can say is... men with ink...yum! :)

Who's with me?

Apps:

Okay I am SERIOUSLY starting to think there should be an addiction class like AA for these convenient little shits! I can NOT tell you how many of these damn things I have because of course I NEED them. 

Ant thinks I am absolutely RETARDED, but like I said I NEED them! 

I will share with you my favs soon but I promise I will categorize them first so you don't go cross eyed reading a half a novel on why I LOVE and NEED them :) 

Music:

I have always been a HUGE music fan and not just a dead set only exclusive kind of girl I listen, enjoy and know ALL genres. From classical to heavy metal; from rap to country there isn't much I don't like. 

If I was a single gal I could tell you I probably wouldn't even OWN a TV. I prefer music ALL day ANY day! 

Chalkboards:

Here is yet another OMG I LOVE thing and the hubby rolls his eyes at me. Granted last year I went a SHIT TON CRAZY little overboard with it. I find it SO convenient and not to mention I can reuse these items OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. With three kids to me that is just money smart lol

I have a free standing easel,  my coffee corner in my kitchen features chalkboard canisters, I have chalkboard banners I use for EVERY party I host and when we build our pantry in the kitchen I already told Ant I want the doors chalk board... DON"T JUDGE ME! ;)

Coffee:

Just ANOTHER thing I grew up to LOVE. I swear it is in my blood stream. I was raised as a military brat PLUS around fire houses and we ALL KNOW those men and women SURVIVE off coffee!

I have always had a taste for it from iced to hot, latte to cappuccino. If it is coffee based I am ON IT! I even got cross trained while working at Books-A-Million and became a certified Barista! Yes folks it is THAT BAD!

Oh and my kitchen theme will be cafe when I start it... LOL

My Planner: 

As a mom, wife, blogger, photographer, business starter, and future student my planner is the NEXT BEST thing besides my cell phone!

This is HOW I manage everything that goes on. 

From Doctor's appointments, school functions for the kids and hubby, sports for the kids, my work schedule, photo sessions birthdays, an

anniversaries and MORE. 

I am tell YOU I. WOULD. BE. LOST without it!

Color Coding:

SO when you are managing a household of , a blog, work, school, sports, a business AND trying to keep up with those Happy Birthday's, you learn to find a system that works for you. Mine just happens to be color coding things in my planner and my filing cabinets.

Aaliyah has pink files, Alora has purple, Dakota has red.. you get the picture LOL 

As for my planner... 

Let's just say multi-colored pen packs are MY BEST FRIEND! The more colors the better!

For example:

Light Blue: Birthdays

Orange: Anniversaries

Pink: Anything to do with the Girls Schools

( I REALLY wish they would have had a pack of pens that had enough colors though to individualize each girl because they are in 3 different schools for the first time this year and that my friends SUCK!)

ETC.

These are just few of the things that I love and I am sure there will be more to share with you very soon!

Next week I am going to be dedicating a day per family member to tell you a little bit more about them!
Have an AMAZING weekend!

Tasty Tuesday: My Homemade Chili & Corn Bread

A LITTLE HISTORY ON THE RECIPE:
This last Saturday the weather was almost the perfect definition of fall. Cool breeze, leaves and trees dancing around you,  barley reached over 70 degrees here and I was L-O-V-ing it! Though I love the beach and would rather live near one my favorite season as always been fall and my favorite month is October!
Since the weather had finally gave us full swing fall and the scene was set I figured it would be a perfect night for one of our family favorites homemade chili and cornbread. If you personally know my family you know it is an almost impossible task to find a meal we ALL agree on.
This recipe is the one that my mom shared with me and I remember loving it as much as a kid. I did however take out one ingredient but if you make it my way or my moms your looking at 5 ingredients or less! My mom ALWAYS did her chili in the crock pot first thing in the morning as us girls ate breakfast. I USED to do it the same way (I personally prefer it that way) but one time several years back I FORGOT to start it that morning before leaving for work and opted to go with this version instead when I got home and dinner wasn't cooked and  I had some HUNGRY babies . I PRAYED to God I didn't fuck it up and it was eatable... well it was and Ant swore it was the best batch yet and ever since then my chili never saw my crock pot again... :(   Men...smh...

OKAY SO HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:

HOMEMADE CHILI

Ingredients:

Hamburger Meat
Pinto Beans
Salsa
Chili Seasoning Packet

THAT'S IT! 

My mom's recipe she used kidney beans also but I omitted them when Dakota and Alora were toddlers so I could get them to eat the chili and it just didn't grow up with them I guess.

For our family of 5; I use:
about 2 pounds or so of the hamburger meat
between 3/4 to a full jar of salsa, I buy the store name generic Mild Chunky salsa, but you can use whatever brand or heat you like bit I would REALLY reccomend you stick with the chunky consistency
one 15 ounce can of the pinto beans, again this is usually the store brand generic can unless a name brand has it cheaper
I usually use one of the McCormicks Original Chili Seasoning packets but the dumb ass walmart here is ALWAYS sold out of it. So I have settled with having to use the mild.

If you decide you want to add the kidney beans you can choose either light or dark red or even both. I still just use one can of them.

This recipe is really flexable and you can add as little or as much of each ingredient as you wish!

HERE IS WHAT YOU DO:

You of course will want to brown your hamburger meat and the drain it well.

Once the meat is fully cooked,
add your can of pinto beans. I drain about half of the juice out; but that is just personal preference.
Then I dumb in about 3/4 of the jar of salsa into the mix
Then I add the seasoning packed.
I some times add the rest of the salsola or a very small amount of water depending how thick it is looking
Once they are all in the pot I mix everything real well and I crank the heat up and let it hang out for a bit. Be sure  to check on it from time to time though. 

While browning the hamburger meat I take the time to preheat my oven and get the corn bread ready to be placed in the oven. I personally use the classic Jiffy Mix and add a little sugar to make it just a little bit sweeter to off set any spice from the chili.

I usually keep my pot of chili on low to medium heat for the length of time it takes the corn bread to bake so I would say between 20 and 25 minutes or so.Once the corn bread is done your chili will be as well. 

Serve your chili and top it as you please:

Dakota, Alora and I are all about the sour cream and cheese  combo with ours.

Aaliyah will ONLY eat hers with "sprinkle" cheese aka parmesan cheese

and as for Ant it's the classic plain with saltine crackers...

The posiblities are endless with this recipe! 

How do you eat your chili?

Our Weekend Recap: My Birthday Weekend

FRIDAY:
Friday was the first day it felt like fall here in Central Arkansas.  We didn't even reach 75 which is a HUGE difference from earlier in the week where we were kissing the high 80s low 90s. We had a nice breeze the entire day and I could NOT help but get out of the house for a bit even though the last few days I havent slept much thanks to my  slap you in your face out of now where cold and fever hit me. I decided I would spend the morning grabbing a few last minute Halloween decor items for the girlies so they could FINALLY decorate for our spooky holiday coming up. You will soon find out I really LOVE holidays!!!

Since Friday also kicked off my birthday weekend I treated myself to my all time fav iced pumpkin spice coffee from Dunkin Donuts while I was browsing for the must have decor.

After I got home from running around I spent a few hours working on deep cleaning in the master bedroom since I am hoping to have a yard sale sooner rather than later and it was the next room on the victims list. I have already hit up the living room and dining room and I am snaking my way through the house. My kids will hate me when I am done but trust me it NEEDS to be done!
After the girls got home from school we hit a few local stores to try and pry some Halloween costume ideas out of the kids and still we are only settled on Aaliyah's. Of course the preteen and teenager HAS to be difficult.
Since I have been under the weather most of the week the hubby decided I didn't have to cook and we grabbed my favorite fast food (HELLO. TACO BELL!) and we all piled up in the living room for family movie night with the new Avengers 2: Age of Ultran movie.
We saw it in theaters but what can we say we are into the super heroes because everyone has a little geek in them right? And of course in true teenage form Dakota will only watch the movie because the guy who plays Quicksilver is hot... smh... girls 

SATURDAY:

Saturday morning I got to sleep in until almost 9 which is a small miracle in itself since my hubby is the up at the butt crack of dawn kinda guy...
The girls had already ate since daddy made pancakes (another miricle), and were dressed for the day.
Our Saturday mornings really consists of the same routine here. Get up, eat, get dressed and then it's out the door to go pay bills. We all know how EXCITING that can be.

Since Dakota (my 13) year old was going out on a "date" we broke up our typical Saturday routine (ANOTHER miracle) so her boyfriend (We shall refer him as C)  could pick her up from the house, (of course his Mimi was driving) so they could go to lunch and then off to go skating.  While we waited for Dakota's beau to show up the rest of us grabbed a bite to eat for lunch.

Since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and of course the girls LOVE to dress up we took the younger two to go check out  Halloween Express in Litthe Rock.

Usually by now Little Rock is infested with the seasonal Spirit store. If you have never heard of them they are HUGE costume and decore store for Halloween only and is usually our favorite one to go to but the only one we have seen so far this year is the Halloween Express off Chenal. Let me just tell you... HUGE disappointment!!! Like bad, bad. Selection on costumes was good but the creepy, scary, wet your pants and cry for your mamma decoration shit SUCKED!  BAD!

Since I figured this weekend would be the weekend we started decorating for All Hallows Eve we would make the day checking out ideas for additions to add later this year or a MUST snatch it up and stash it for 2016. The next stop we went to was a home decor store called At Home, ours in Little Rock is located right off of Cantrell across the street from Sam's Club.

If you don't have one of these locally I am so so so very sorry! This store is AMAZING. They have a HUGE selection of anything and everything that can go in or outside your house to make it your home. The majority of their items are decently priced and they have some things you won't find any where else.


Since Aaliyah had requested to go to the  Bass Pro Shop (blah) I was able to sneak a peak at the progress of our new outlet mall opening the 16th of this month. Its located right off of I-30 so it's in a good location and I have to say I LOVE a good Outlet Mall! This will be a MUST go to place for us in the very near future!

We decided to head back towards the house since I needed to grab a few things from the grocery store that I was going to require to make homemade chili and corn bread for dinner. This is one of our favorites especially in the fall and winter months. I will share the recipe with you later this week.

By the time we got home Dakota was headed home from her date. She had a great time at the big skating rink in Little Rock which offers not just skating but year round ICE skating which D got to try for the first time. Later that night C messaged me on Instagram thanking me for letting her go and told me that they had a lot of fun together. (PROPS TO HIS PARENTS! )

Since all my brats were home I took the advantage and grabbed them and dragged my hubby (Ant who is SO NOT in love with the holidays) to start the decorating!  We started outside and worked our way in doors. I will share more about our spooky home make over later in the week also so stay tuned.

As I tied up some loose ends on a little of  the inside decor I threw together dinner (I am telling you it is SO easy!) that way we could set down and watch a movie as a family. Honestly we are some movie watching folks. I'm personally not huge on TV but if it brings my little family together and there's NO fighting I'll take it! The movie:  The Avengers.  Ant has been in  this weird let's watch a series of movies but backwards kind of mood as of late... last week was the Fast and the Furious movies... I'm telling you weird!

SUNDAY: aka.... I turned... sigh... 31

So let me start off by saying I DO NOT make a huge deal about my birthday, I LOVE and HAVE huge parties for my girls and hubby but when it comes to myself I'm like whatever. My birthday has not been a huge deal to me since I turned 16 so I'm used to it. I'm not one to be the center of attention.

ANYWAYS....

Yesterday was a typical day honestly besides my phone and FB going nuts. Sunday is our grocery shopping day and it did not fail that is what we did. I am pretty sure the kids would have thought they we're going to STARVE TO DEATH (yes they are a tad over dramatic but they are girls after all) if we didn't follow routine.  I mean after all a girls got too eat right?

We came home and spent the rest of the day there doing odd and end things. I dyed Alora's and Aaliyah's hair since Alora bought it last weekend with her birthday money and they both needed it. I finished up a few odd and end Halloween things I didn't get done the day before, like my chalkboa&rd...

And apparently October 4th happens to be NATIONAL TACO DAY!  Hell yeah! 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE me some Mexican food so it was a PERFECT dinner idea and I whipped us up some homemade tacos for dinner.

Like I said it was a very NORMAL day here and as you will soon to find out when you have 3 girls you  REALLY REALLY RRALLY enjoy the quiet days with just you and your little family.

What did you do over the weekend? Anything fall or Halloween related or did you guys celebrate National Taco Day too?

**DISCLAIMER**
This is not a sponsored post. Stores were of my choice and the opinions are of my own personal perseptions